Meet Lola

It's been a year and a half since we had to put down Roswell because of her liver disease. Her death left a hole in my heart, but gradually we knew it was time to look for another dog. Several things happened that serendipitously led us to this little girl being cuddled by Dominic:


1. Passing by a local Petco, I noticed that they would be hosting a pet adoption June 11, the day after school got out. The timing was so perfect it felt like it was meant to be.

2. Derick found the name of the rescue group, Homeward Bound, and we had perused the avilable dogs to find ones we liked. A day or two before the 11th, Derick asked me to look again, since new dogs were coming in. I saw a dog whose picture I hadn't noticed before, a Shepherd mix named Daisy. She looked jaunty with ears askew. I liked her.

3. As we waited for the dogs to be brought into the store, I met Daisy as she was walked in. She was obviously a sweetheart.

4. We test drove two dogs, taking them outside for a walk and trying to play with them. They were nice, but neither wanted to play, which was a problem for my boys. While we were outside, I saw a couple with Daisy, so I thought we'd lost our chance with her.

5. When we went back indoors, Daisy was back in her cage. I told Derick she was the one, so we took her outside to play. And she played. She was a love.

Dominic came up with the name Lola, named after a girl in his class who I hope never learns we named our dog after her. (Rowan had come up with the boy name, had we adopted a boy dog: Killebrew.) I like the name, though every time I tell people that her name is Lola, I then proceed to hear this song for an hour.

Lola is about 5 months old, but she's already mostly house and crate trained. Now we're teaching her her new name and some basic commands. Right now she's mastered "Go get your toy," which we need because her definition of a toy is much larger than our definition.

We had a funny moment this afternoon when she trotted into the room with Derick's hiking boot hanging out of her mouth. I took it away, she left, and she returned with the bathroom rug. I took it, and she came back with the kitchen rug! I then took out a tennis ball and played fetch until she was tired.

She's a love, though. When we got her home, we gave her a bath:

Doesn't she look so forlorn? All the good crusty doggie smells were taken away from her coat!

Here we tried our first walk. She's not a natural with a leash. That will take time.

After we came home, she lay on my legs and fell asleep. I didn't have to heart to move her.

I'm enjoying thinking about these next few weeks of summer, taking her to the park, taking her camping, and teaching her that her name is Lola.